China Travel Deals, China Tourist, China Vacation, Chinese Travel

Geely has plenty to do on the comfort, safety and technology of its cars before American motorists will be allowed a test drive. But the company’s export figures tell a hopeful story. Total exports of 12 000 cars in 2005 represents a fast jump on the 5 000 cars it sold abroad the previous year. At home, Geely accounts for a 4.7 percent and Mazda is on similar figures. Ford holds 2.5 percent.

Geely’s "Life Beyond Expectation!" slogan has gone down well with china’s thrifty white-collar families seeking wheels and some face. Thrifty Americans will be able to buy a Geely for between US $8 000 and US $10 000, say Li, clearly relishing an underdog image. None of this domestic peers, he points out, had the nerve to show cars at any of the world’s major annual auto shows, until Geely took five cars to Frankfurt in September 2005 and Detroit in February 2006.

But the quality of this cars hasn’t always matched Li’s promises and his bravado. Geely has scored poorly on looks, and has been accused of turning out ugly hodge-podges of lifted designs. Li has also been accused of borrowing more than a business model from Japanese marques. Toyota is suing Geely for copyright infringement while the centerpiece of Geely’s offerings at both shows, the CD, a sports coupe, has been compared unfavorably to a Hyundai. A 54-hp bright green five-door HQ meanwhile "wore some of the waviest body panels this side of a demolition derby," wrote one Detroit critic.

A reputation for low-quality materials and poor workmanship-even its luxury-level Maple Marindo 303 has been ridiculed in the trade press-will take fixing in the image-conscious West. But then Japanese cars were also jeered when they first came to the United States. Li meanwhile is looking after the people who made him big. New plants under construction in poorer south-central provinces of Hunan an Gansu will keep production costs down and bring lost-cost Geely staples closer to the unfussy masses it had always promised to serve. And if the American dream turns sour, there’s going to be plenty more room in China for small cars. A recent circular from China’s policy-making State Development and Reform Commission, since approved by the government, proposes incentives for manufactures of environmentally-friendly and economical cars. Sound like Geely country.